ADDRESS OF THE HERTFORDSHIRE PROTESTANT

ASSOCIATION.

THE Committee of the Herts Protestant and Reformation Association earnestly invite the support of all in the county who value the Protestant faith, and call their attention to the following brief statement of their objects and aims.

The need of such an union as the Herts Association offers among British Protestants at the present time, seems too plain to require proof. The church of Rome, recovering from the shock it received in the times of the French Revolution, is resuming its projects of ambition, and bending all its powers against this land, the main bulwark of Protestantism. The funds of its Propaganda are all turned to this one object. Its Jesuits, its writers and its demagogues, are in full activity for this same end. In Ireland, the great majority of the population have long been the slaves of her demoralizing influence, and now the whole weight of government is thrown into the same scale. In the colonies, steps are fast taking towards the regular establishment of Popery, and Popish bishops and clergy have been sent out under government authority, to India and Australia. In England the number of Romish chapels, in 1824, was about 357, and more than a hundred have been since added. In Scotland they have increased by more than one half in the last ten years only. A Romish Institute has been formed at London, under the direction of their bishops, and the patronage of the Roman-catholic peers, whose aim is to concentrate all papal efforts in this land into a connected and organized system, spreading through every part of the island. The Romish priests are active in prayers to saints abroad, and shows, processions, music, and miracles at home, for the same end of perverting protestants from their faith. Nunneries are establishing in many places. The host has already been carried in open procession, seminaries for priests and other schools under the same influence are multiplying, and to complete the danger, the government, though Protestant in name, is confessedly leaning upon Popish support as its chief strength and stay. The effect of these things on the adherents of the Papacy is the production of sanguine hope. Their language is growing more bold. They speak of nothing less than a national conversion to Popery, as the fulfilment of their aims, and they are pursuing their object with an energy worthy of a better cause, and with the confidence which in an evil cause, is the frequent forerunner of temporary success and short-lived triumph.

On the other hand, Protestants in general are asleep, ignorant, and careless. The great body are so absorbed in worldly cares

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or political objects, as to be quite blind to the pressing danger. Vast numbers, in these times of peace and security, have lapsed into a fatal indifference to the truth. Deceived by specious sophisms of the day, they are ready to deny the importance of truth in religion, and its unspeakable value to the temporal welfare of states, no less than to man's eternal salvation. Such persons deceive themselves with the fancy that their heartless indifference to the truth is liberality and benevolence, and their apostacy from their fathers' protest against deadly tyranny and superstition, a mark of enlightened minds and superior wisdom. This grand delusion has worked fatally among those separated from the Establishment, till many of them are ready to renounce their specific grounds of dissent, and merge themselves among the most infidel spirits of the day, in a common crusade against all national testimony to truth, or national worship of the one living and true God. And within the church the danger is scarcely less, when some, recoiling from the abuses of endless divisions, and the blight of liberal unbelief, are ready to renounce their solemn protest against the superstitions and idolatries of Rome, and retrace their steps half way to her corrupt communion.

To meet these threatening evils, in dependence on God's blessing, the Protestant Association has been formed. Its object is plain and simple. Were the clergy indeed all fully alive to the subject, the laity already duly acquainted with the nature of Popery, its present progress, hopes, and subtle wiles, its fair words when weak, its cruelties when strong, and were the government soundly and heartily attached to Protestant principles, such unions might be less needed. But this is not the case. The watchmen themselves need arousing to the danger, and uniting in defence; the people need awakening and enlightening on the vast importance of the issues at stake, and a firm array of zeal in the cause of pure religion to be marshalled in the land, which may stay the plague of secret papal influence in the seats of national power.

The maxims on which this Association rests are two great and simple truths. The first is, that true Christian faith is the surest foundation of NATIONAL welfare, and ought therefore to be NATIONALLY maintained, as the vital breath and all-pervading life of the British constitution. The second is, that Popery is a system of tyranny in creed, and idolatry in practice, the bitter persecutor of pure Christian doctrine, and fatal in its effects to the morals and peace of society. These truths it is sought to impress on our population by Scripture, reason and experience, by the warnings of apostles, the sufferings of martyrs, and the lessons of past and present history; till the most careless shall be aroused to reflect on our present danger, and the deceivers and deceived be compelled to own that there is such a thing as truth or falsehood

in creed, and right or wrong in practice, and religion or atheism in states, and a solemn account to be given by rulers for their influence, and a blessing on the promotion of God's pure worship and service; and that national infidelity, though it may style itself liberal, and Romish idolatry, though claiming the name of catholic, can gain nothing but a curse, and lead only to ruin.

The Committee of the Herts Association appeal to the nobility, clergy, and gentry of the county, to assist their object practically in their respective neighbourhoods.

This assistance may be rendered in various methods:

1st. By becoming members of the Association.

2d. By promoting the circulation of the many valuable Protestant tracts and works which have recently been published in order to meet the present wants of the church. With such tracts the committee will be ready to supply the subscribers, and they will cheerfully give information to those who wish for it.

3d. By preparing the way for the formation of Auxiliary Societies in different parts of the county on the same principles: in doing which it is recommended, where the clergy judge it advisable, that a preparatory sermon should be preached. The committee will be glad to assist in furnishing any help in their power to the formation of such associations.

4th. It is above all important to conduct every effort in that spirit of faith and prayer, scriptural wisdom, patient meekness, and unfailing love, which God so eminently gave to the British bishops, clergy, and laity in the reformation of our own church.

Communications may be addressed to any of the secretaries. The committee feel how small is their own strength for promoting this great and holy cause. But they rely on the might of truth and righteousness. They know the soundness of the principles they maintain. They feel persuaded that even a few united on the ground of truth, are stronger than thousands leagued only by a spirit of delusion. They look up for that blessing which ever rests on the feeblest efforts honestly directed to the maintenance of God's revealed word and the safety and happiness of his creatures. They desire to see this county and our whole nation rise to a due sense of our glory as the head Protestant kingdom of the earth, the great bulwark which God's providence has raised for his own truth in a deluded world. They long to see a due gratitude for the national mercies which, for this very reason, we have enjoyed in so large a measure. They desire to feel, and to warn others of the double danger of those once favoured with this light, should they weakly or wickedly relapse into the arms of Romish seducers. They would close with the touching appeal of the prophet. "And now, O our God, after thou hast given us such deliverance, should we again break thy commandments, and join in the affinity with people of these

abominations? Wouldst thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?" Ezra ix. 15.)

E. BICKERSTETH, Rector of Watton.
F. J. FAITHFULL, Rector of Hatfield.
J. OLIVE, Rector of Ayott St. Lawrence.

POETRY.

THE CHURCH THE HONOUR AND SAFETY OF A NATION.

TRANSLATION OF BEZA'S EPIGRAM ON THE CARDINALS.
(For the Protestant Magazine.)

Those lady-fathers** glittering caps,
And silken robes of brilliant hue,
From slaughtered fish no scarlet gained,
From insects slain no purple drew;
Those sanguine stains are holy blood,
Fresh laid, you see, and streaming over,
That purple blush betrays the shame

The garments feel such crimes to cover.

THE WESLEYANS AND NATIONAL EDUCATION. We have great pleasure in copying the following passage from the Watchman. Mr. O'Connell's letter to the Wesleyans on the subject of Education, to which the resolutions refer, was published in the organ of the Papists-the Morning Chronicle-and was, like many other of that gentleman's productions, a most unscrupulous and intolerant attack on persons who had done nothing more than differ with him and his faction.

THE MANCHESTER WESLEYANS AND MR. O'CONNELL.

A meeting of the Manchester Wesleyan Education Committee was held on Monday, the 15th July, in the Stewards' Room, Oldham-Street; the Rev. JOHN RIGG, in the chair.

A letter addressed "To the Ministers and Office-Bearers of the Wesleyan Methodist Societies of Manchester," signed "Daniel O'Connell," having been read,

It was moved by James Wood, Esq., seconded by Geo. R. Chappell, Esq.,

"I. That this Committee declines to take any notice of Mr. O'Connell's letter, other than is comprised in these resolutions :

"1. Because that letter contains the most false and calumnious imputations, as well upon the personal character and conduct of the late venerable John Wesley, as upon the general spirit and habits of that sect of Christians which now bears his name, and to which the members of this Committee deem it an honour to belong.

"2. Because the whole argument of the letter proceeds upon the most bold and palpable misrepresentations of the document to which it professes to reply.

"3. Because the letter is an obvious, and, as this committee considers, a dishonest attempt to propagate, by means of a controversy with the Wesleyans of Manchester, some of the most absurd though dangerous dogmas of popery; and

*Semiviri.